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Friday, December 30, 2016

2016 Wrap Up!

Wow, can you believe it? We're at the end of 2016! No way!

Actually, if I'm going to be honest, I'm glad 2016 is over. It's not a big secret that this year has been disaster after disaster. For me, it wasn't just global issues; there were a lot of family developments and challenges that overall sucked. But you know what? It happened. And since we can collectively agree that it was a horrible year, we can use as a means to be better in the new year. And I know some of the things that happened in 2016 couldn't have been predicted or prevented, but at least we're now able to use 2016 as a baseline of what we don't want a repeat of.Enough about this. Let's talk about books. Books are wonderful.As many of you may have noticed, I've been a bit absent the past two months. Reason is academics, and the result is that I haven't been able to read all the major books that came out at the end of the year. Because of that, there will be some books that are missing from my list of best books I've read this year that I'm certain should be on it.Favourite Books of 2016 (in no particular order):A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. MaasLady Midnight by Cassandra ClareThe Shadow Queen by C.J. RedwineGathering of Darkness by V.E. SchwabRebel of the Sands by Alwyn HamiltonKing's Rising by C.S. Pact

Which brings me to the next topic: did I complete my Goodreads challenge of reading 100 books this year?The short answer is no. The long answer is that according to Goodreads, re-reading books doesn't count towards the number of books you read that year. So that all being taken into consideration, no, I did not read 100 new books. But I definitely did read almost 100 books (97 to be exact...I only needed an extra two days to make it, darn it!).

Switching away from books, here's a list of everything my small blog and I accomplished this year (a slight repeat of my blogging anniversary post I did a month back, but there's a few extra things here):

-I won an award for Best YA Blog of 2015!-Updated my blog's title (twice) and design! Some of you may remember my very uncreative and boring blog before hand. Granted, my blog still is kind of boring and bland, but it's a significant improvement since the very first one, since there's now a header and the background isn't one of those pre-set ones (okay, it still is, but it's not immediately obvious)-I did a Blogging Buddies Tag with Eve from Edge of Night, which was an absolutely amazing experience!-Hosted a Graceling Read-Along with Caroline from Just Another Bookish Blog-I got my first "real" ARC--an actual physical book from one of the major publishing companies! AHHHHH!!!-So! Many! Blog! Tours! And! Interviews!-I introduced a new segment, called Booking Musings and Ponderings. Check out the first instalment here (and let me know what other topics I should cover)Okay, so not that impressive. But it's still impressive to me in comparison to last year, when I literally didn't do much!

And as we slowly wind down to the end of my last post of 2016, I just want to take a moment to thank you all for sticking with me. You guys are the absolute best, and I love you all. May you have a wonderful remainder of the year, and see you in 2017 for another year of bookish endeavours!

13 comments:

The fact that Goodreads don't count rereads is one of the things that annoy me about it! And it looks to me that you've accomplished a lot this year with your blog (Also, it's totally not boring and bland). I look forward to seeing you and your blog smashing goals next year. :D

Haha, if Goodreads counted rereads, then I would be reading a lot more books in one year :D Yeah, 2016 was terrible in general - apart from the books that were released. My top 10 2016 books are similar to yours, yay! Hopefully 2017 will be better :)

If I reread a book I always change the ‘read’ date so that it counts towards my challenge, no shame ^^ I totally get you with the academics, that’s why I had no-read November. College is just one of those things I guess. By the way, I’d love to host another readalong / even with you this year! :D It’s always so much fun! Do you want to pick a series this time, since I chose Graceling? :) I know 2016 was hard - it was for me too. But I like to hold on to the good things that happened. Blogging was as fun as ever, academics weren’t too awful, and I made some great friends this year. You know, simple things like that :)

Ah, that's a very sneaky way of adding reread books to the Goodreads challenge! I'll have to start doing that too >:DYES! I'd love to do another readalong with you! I'll have to get back to you on a series, since the options are limitless. Any particular genre you're leaning towards? :D

I'm glad you had such a great reading year! It was better than mine, anyway - I let attempting to finish my Goodreads challenge affect the enjoyment of the books I was reading so I didn't read as many amazing books as I was hoping. Aw well! Here's hoping for an even better 2017. Happy new Year, Erika! Let's make it the best one yet :) x

congrats on having a great reading year! Personally I love your blog design even if it is simple. ALSO LADY MIDNIGHT WAS SO GOOD IT WAS ON MY FAVORITES POST TOO AHHHHHHH. I can't wait for Lord of Shadows! Great post :)